Tylenol Murders

0:01 Welcome to rainy day rabbit Holes, where we take the history of the West off the rails. If you like your history unhinged, you are in the right place. I'm shy and I'm Jody. Let's fall down the rabbit hole. It begins with a throbbing in the temples, maybe a feeling like an ice pick behind your eyes. You rub the bridge of your nose, but it's getting worse. So what do you do, Jody? Get some tile and all that's right? You pop a tail and all, oh, I was right, you were right. Yeah, good old assema. Uh, let's see, how do we say this? A ceda menafin Jesus, a ceta metaphin. Look, it's not that hard, guys, it's a ceda menaphin. So Thailandl's name is being dragged through the mud by a bunch of claims made without real scientific backing.

0:56 But you know that's never stopped. Captain Cankeles or doctor Brain were before. Nope. And even though this shifts blame onto women once again and once again restricts their choices, you know, let's just put the current nightmare that is our country aside for a moment. Let's travel back in time to another nightmare, a darker time when taking a tailanol for a simple headache was like playing Russian roulette, a time when an innocuous bottle of tailanol could kill Jody. That's your cue. Oh, dun't dun't du I was like thinking, in my head, I was here. I mean, I remember this all going down. I already know where you're headed, and I was remembering it all in my head.

1:48 It's September nineteen eighty two in Chicago. The hair was big, the pizza was deep. There wasn't a Federal National Guard person to be seen. Ice wasn't snatching people off the street, and a series of terrifying deaths would grip the nation and lead to massive changes in the United States. In the early morning of September twenty eighth, twelve year old Elk Grove resident Mary Kellerman had a bit of a sore throat and a ready nose. No big deal, normal type of complaint, the beginning of a little cold, so her mom gave her a single extra strength tile and old capsule to soothe her aching throat. Mary collapsed on the bathroom floor and was dead by seven am.

2:34 Wow, how long after she took it. It's very short. They didn't give an actual time, but I think it's within minutes. Wow. The same day as well, however long it would take for that gelatine capsule to dissolve in your stomach. Minutes, yeah, for sure. The same day, less than ten miles away, in Arlington Heights, a twenty seven year old postal worker named Adam Janis took two extra strength tilnal capsules. He hadn't been feeling well when he woke up for work that day, so on his way home, he stopped at the jewel Oscar store in Arlington Heights and bought a bottle of pain reliever. He took the pills and began to feel strange Very shortly after. He went to lay down, but when he became unresponsive, he was rushed to the hospital. He died that afternoon. Doctors told his grieving family that it had been a heart attack. The family wept over Adam's body and then went back to Adam's house. His brother, Stanley Janis, twenty five years old, and Stanley's brand new wife, Teresa, twenty years old, both in shock and feeling terrible with massive headaches, found a bottle full of tilnyl capsules in the house and took a couple each. A third brother, Joe, watched in horror as his brother Stanley fell to the floor, white foam coming out of his mouth, eyes rolled backwards, words, and Joe called an ambulance. When the paramedics were loading Stanley into the ambulance, Teresa stumbled after them, calling her

4:07 husband's name and collapsed. Both were taken to the hospital and later died. At their funeral, both caskets were carried into the same church where they had been married just three months earlier. Three months Sorry, I had like all of a sudden got me choked up. It was just as so tragic, both caskets being carried in one after the other. Just can you imagine. Over the next few days, three more strange deaths would rock the community. Thirty five year old Mary McFarland of Elmhurst, thirty five year old Paula Prince of Chicago, and twenty seven year old Mary Reiner of Winfield, who had just delivered.

4:50 Her fourth child. Besides dying tragically young and living in the Greater Chicago area, what did these three women have in common? Well, they all took tylanol shortly before dying. At this point, investigators were making the connection between the deaths, thanks in part to some savvy people, firefighter Chuck Kramer and plucky nurse Helen Jensen. She worked in Arlington Heights Village, and they both worked to put two and two together. Tylanol was at the time the most popular non aspirin pain reliever in the United States, and these gelatin capsules were especially popular because they were easy to swallow. Helen visited the Janus's home and noticed the almost full bottle of Tylanl extra strength capsules sitting on a counter. She counted the capsules and noticed that six were missing, two for each death.

5:50 She immediately brought this to the attention of the medical examiner and the police, but they laughed at her. Kramer, the firefighter, tracked down a pair of medic who had responded to the twelve year old Mary Keller's death, who said she had also taken Thailand all. He also reported his findings, but nobody believed him either, so they both just kept hounding the police and the medical examiner, who eventually agreed to look into it, and shortly it was discovered that the capsules in the bottle contained lethal doses of potassium cyanide powder enough to kill a person many times over. Wow, And so do you know was it the whole bottle or just was it a Russian roulette situation.

6:35 I don't think every single capsule was I was contaminated. I can't remember. That's a lot of you know, product, And you know that you had to take each of those pills apart, dump them out, put them back together, a lot of eff Yeah. Yeah, And there's so when I was looking into this story, I listened to an amazing podcast all about the Thailand All murders, and it was done by the Chicago New Tribune, So an incredible investigative journalism. Yeah, and we'll get into it later. But the one person that they really were focusing on as a suspect later on, at one point was saying that he was helping the investigators and describing how they might contaminate the capsules by using like he called it the breadboard method, where it was something about creating a channel in a plank of wood and putting the capsules in there, and you could dump the cyanide on the board and just scrape it into this channel with a knife. And it would fill the capsules.

7:30 Oh got it. I mean yeah, it's time consuming to fill all those capsules, but you know it was doable. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So a nation, if you're if you're if you're dedicated to your mission, it probably is not a problem at all. Right, you know, if you're really serious about what you're about to do and you need the result that you're after, right. Right, A nationwide panic ensued. Obviously, law enforcement drove through neighborhoods with loud speakers telling all of the residents to throw any tail in. Johnson and Johnson recalled at least thirty one million bottles. It was the first mass recall in American history. Oh really yep? And it started a murder investigation that would span over forty years and had more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie novel, which we will get into after this quick break. Seven innocent people were now dead, all after ingesting deadly cyanide tainted tailanl capsules. But how did the cyanide get in there? Both law enforcement and Johnson and Johnson were digging into the case. Jay and j quickly established that the cyanide lacing happened after the tilanol left the factory, and police found receipts for the purchase of tilanol by several of the victims, Jewel food Stores in Arlington Heights and Elk Grove Village, Walgreens in Chicago's Old Town,

9:00 Oscar Drug at the Woodfield Mall, Dominic's, Finer Foods in Old Town, and Woolworth's in Lombard. The police hypothesized that the bottles had been taken off the store shelves, most likely stolen the capsules laced with cyanide, and then the packages returned to the shelves. So for our younger listeners, you may not know this, but back in the day, there were no safety seals on bottles, right, that's a new invention because of this. I remember as a child that they had to add that. Yeah, you had a flimsy paper cardboard box, most likely not glued shut. It was just a flap that you could pull open and then you just screw off the top.

9:44 And all that is in there protecting your medicines from the rest of the world is a ball of cotton. That's it. And these gelatin capsules were popular because they were easy to swallow, unlike you know, your regular tablets, they get stuck as soon as they get sticky when they get wet, and it's harder to swallow. So these were popular. But they were just a gelatine capsule that you could just break open and dump all the contents out. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just a recipe right there for disaster exactly. In early nineteen eighty three, at the FBI's request, a trap was set to lure the killer. In Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Green published the home address and grave location of twelve year old Mary Kellerman, and then they kept a twenty four hour surveillance on the Kellerman's home and Mary's gravesite for several months, just hoping that the killer would show up, but to no avail.

10:44 And I am really surprised that the family of Mary Kellerman went along with this. It was their home address that the question in the paper, so anywheredo so oh, and they were part of it. I was wondering when you said it, like ooh, like that is not kind to the family. But they were aware of it, huh they went away. Yeah, I mean they went along with it, which is very surprising. I mean, yeah, of course they want to know why this happened to their daughter and catch the person responsible. But you know that's that's scary. Boxing meant something different back then. Maybe it didn't see miss Scary. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, but remember back in our research, back in the olden days, when somebody was reporting on a story and somebody just you know, they interviewed somebody on the street, they would.

11:29 Publish their name and address. Oh yeah right, they're like according. To miss ethel Hefferman, who resides at one two eight six five Grove Courts, Northwest and Tacoma, Washington, and the blue house with the red shutters, you. Know, and legitimacy to the story by having exact details. Right, we didn't make her up. You could just go to her house and knock on the door and ask her if she said these things, and like, I just can't imagine that right now, you know. So there was also one surveillance photo of another victim, Paula Prince, that she was purchasing her bottle of tail and al at Walgreens.

12:11 There's this bearded man in the video be just behind her, and they surmised that maybe that was the killer. But that was literally it that's all they had to go on. They had nothing, just real guesses, is all they're walking with. Yeah, exactly. But then in October of the same year, law enforcement received a chilling letter. It included details of the investigation that had not been made public, and it demanded one million dollars to stop the killings. It was signed by a man named Robert Richardson, and here's what it said, gentlemen. As you can see, it is easy to place cyanide, both potassium and sodium into capsules sitting on store shelves.

12:57 And since the cyanide is inside the jelatine, and it is easy to get buyers to swallow the bitter pill. Another beauty is that cyanide operates quickly. It takes so very little and there will be no time to take countermeasures. If you don't mind the publicity of these little capsules, then do nothing. So far, I have spent less than fifty dollars and it takes me less than ten minutes per bottle. If you want to stop the killing, then wire one million dollars to bank account number eight four four nine five seven at Continental Illinois Bank, Chicago, Illinois. Don't attempt to involve the FBI or local Chicago authorities with this letter, a couple of phone calls, Buy me, will undo anything you can possibly do?

13:45 Wow? Ballsy right? So, and do they look into this bank account? It feels like that'd be very easy for them to identify someone. This was really interesting. So Robert Richardson owned a travel agency called Lakeside Travel and One, and they had recently shut down. One of the people he used to work there was a woman named Leanne Lewis, and when Lakeside Travel closed its doors, it had a lot of back pay owed to its employees and never paid them. Leanne was an accountant at Lakeside Travel, so she would have had access to their bank account information.

14:32 And where that money went or write if there is any. So this letter led them back. Obviously they looked into that, and they looked into the employees. That bank account belonged to Lakeside Travel, but it wasn't Robert Richardson. He didn't do this and sign his own name like that would be very dumb. But it led them to the husband of Leanne, James W. Lewis, and they linked him through handwriting and fingerprints on the let When they talked to James Lewis about this. He said that it was an attempt to embarrass his wife's former employer because you know, they didn't pay her her back pay, and also to bring attention to Johnson and Johnson's vulnerability. He denied any involvement in the title murders, but he was convicted for attempted extortion and served twelve years in prison for this.

15:26 But they at that time were not able to link him to the title of murders. But you could he was just trying to make money off this. Well, but they haven't ruled it out that it wasn't oh got it, okay, They just didn't have enough evidence to actually tie him. All they had was this letter. Sure, But something interesting that they found out. James Lewis's daughter, who was born with Down syndrome, was born with a lot of heart defects, had a lot of surgeries, and she passed away in nineteen seventy four from complications from this congenital heart defect. And it was found that the sutures used in her heart during this most recent surgery had ripped, and those sutures were under a patent held by Jay and.

16:09 J Okay Yep so suture business. To this day, right, So they suspected that maybe this was, you know, some retribution for the death of his daughter, though he denied it forever. So Lewis was the investigator's main suspect for decades, but they were never able to pinant on him. The case went cold. No, remember this was nineteen eighty two that this happened. It was reopened in two thousand and nine by the FBI, but despite having a search warrant for James Lewis's house and seizing a ton of potential evidence, including computers and documents and DNA analysis, they were still not definitively able to tie him to the murders. And unfortunately, to this day, we will never know if James Lewis was indeed the title and all killer because he died in July of twenty twenty.

17:07 Three, oh recently ish. Yeah, but side note, it's not that he was just an innocent bystander. Like obviously we already know about the extortion letter that he served twelve years for. He was also convicted of mail fraud, so he dabbled. Yeah, he sent a threatening letter to President Reagan threatening to use a radio controlled model airplane to interfere with Secret Service operations at the White House. In two thousand and four, he was arrested in charge with multiple felonies, including rape, kidnapping, assault, at administering drugs with intent to commit a crime. So broad, yeah, area of illegal criminalidations.

17:52 Yes. So in that one, he allegedly lured a young woman into his home, drugged her with and assaulted her don't I. Don't know, obviously not potassium. It wish she would be dead. Yeah. He was held for three years and released when the charges were dismissed because the woman refused to testify. He was also this was very interesting. He was also charged with the murder and dismemberment of one of his tax clients in nineteen seventy eight, but that case was dropped because the original arresting officers failed to properly mirandize him and therefore all of his testimony and everything that came after that was not admissible. Insane, Yeah, so the DA had to just drop it loopol. That was a really sad part of this story. It was this old man who James Lewis was his tax man, and like everybody in the town knew this old man and he had been talking about how like, man, my tax guy just keeps hanging around, he keeps showing up in my house like he's getting in my business in a way that's that I don't like. And then this guy just disappeared. Nobody could get a hold of him.

19:07 They went to his house and there was a padlock on the door. They couldn't find him anywhere. And then finally they went up into the attic and there was this like his dismembered body in the attic. What go ahead? Like, just who was this body? Like this man that I'm talking about, this old man, his body was in his own attic. Okay, And a few days after he disappeared, a five thousand dollars check made out to James Lewis was attempted to be cleared through his bank. Wow, there was a. Lot of evidence tying this guy to this murder. But because these officers were so gung ho and they did not that's unfortunately William randize him. This poor guy. They had to just ano family who won't ever see any consequences. Right, But back in nineteen eighty six, James Lewis was on the radar but hadn't been just you know, he was there.

20:06 Nothing really had happened. The case was still open, so investigators, even though they suspected James Lewis, they still did not know for sure who had committed the murders. Maybe it was Lewis, but maybe the real killer was still out there, and maybe the killer had moved to the misty forests of the Pacific Northwest. Maybe maybe. Yeah. But before we go on and come to our region, let's take a quick break before we get back to the story. If you're listening to this episode before Christmas of twenty twenty five, we want to announce a special gift we're giving to our listeners for the holiday season.

20:50 We're going to choose one lucky listener to get their own piece of bespoke fan fiction. Now, normally this is reserved for our Patreon supporters, but we want you to do on the fun. If you listen to some of our recent episodes like Tacoma's Cursed ghost Ship, Haunted Brothels of the wild West, you can hear some of our past fan fiction stories. All you have to do is go to our website and sign up for a newsletter. We'll pick a random winner in early December, and you can tell us who it'll be about. Is it you, is it a friend? You want to do this as a gift for somebody, Then you can also tell us what story of ours you want it to be based on, or just let us pick it. So it's a fun, unique gift to give somebody to have their own little story all about them. And uh yeah again, you can just go to Randy Day rabbit holes dot com and we'll have a link there to sign up. All right, let's get back to the story. So it's nineteen eighty six, Auburn, Washington.

21:46 The hair is still big, although slightly more damp. A young Jodie King is emptying a bottle of aquinet on our bangs for sure. Actually it was an Ausi sprune spray probably, Okay, a bottle of a rapey preparing to go out and dissipate some poor little girl in the soft ball field. Yeah, hit with a pitch, for sure, if you're nasty. On June fifth, Stella Nickel called the fire department. Her husband, Bruce, a heavy machinery operator, had collapsed. Emergency personnel rushed to their single wide trailer in Auburn, where the unconscious Bruce lay on the floor. He was rushed by helicopter to Harbor View Hospital in Seattle, but died shortly after. The autopsy declared the cause of death to be Emphysima. Stella said that Bruce had come home from work that day with a headache. He took four extra strength et CE cap lets with capsules, which I think is more than the recommended doses.

22:48 That seems like, I mean, if they're the same as they are today, Yes, that's twice the dose. Yeah. Well, and when't is extra strength so that you can just take one? Yes, but max dos is their five hundred milligrams each and max dos is one thousand at a time. Yeah. So anyway, so he popped four of these puppies, walked out onto the back deck to watch the birds, and collapse within minutes. Then six days later, on June eleventh, fifteen year old Haley Snow found her mother's Sue unconscious on the floor of the bathroom in their Auburn home. She was also taken to Harbor View by helicopter, but tragically died, But this time pathologists had a clue. They could smell bitter almonds during the autopsy, so tested for cyanide poisoning. Soon, the FDA announced that cyanide laced extra strength in cedron capsules had been found in her home.

23:52 The FBI was notified and at that point they took over the investigation. So, just like in nineteen eighty two with the Tail and all deaths, the Bristol Myers company initiated a nationwide recall of the drug and halted production. At this point, the drug manufacturing conglomerate was also really alarmed, so they banded together to offer a three thousand dollars three thousand, three hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, three thousand's not that much. I don't remember. I didn't realize the price difference. Yeah, inflation really is no three hundred thousand dollars. So, uh, Jody, what is in nineteen eighty six three hundred thousand dollars?

24:36 What would that be today? That's got to be at least double, if not morking now, maybe more like a million dollars. Oh, very close. Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, That's what I'm gonna guess. Are you serious? But it's eight hundred and eighty six thousand dollars, seven hundred and ninety five. I'm good. I guess it. That is real good. You were off by thirty six thousand, seven ninety five dollars and sixty two cents. So specific all right. So a sweep of grocery and pharmacy shelves in King County produced another bottle of tainted pills from Johnny's Market in Kent. So this was put out on the news. You know, don't take etctern throw it out. And the next day, Bruce Nichols's widow, Stella, called the FBI to tell them that she too had bottles of etceterron and that Bruce had taken some right before collapsing. When investigators showed up at her home to collect the bottle, she produced two bottles, saying that she had purchased them on two occasions from two different locations.

25:43 Both bottles contained tainted capsules. Whoa. Blood tests showed that Bruce, like SEUs Snow, had died from cyanide poisoning. And by the way, I've just got to insert something here. So one of these articles I read it said one of Stella's neighbors character rised her as a washed up honky tonk girl. Oh my god, so picture a burn, so this was suspicious. It's pretty unlikely that she could have purchased two contaminated bottles from two different locations, given that there were only four known four or five by the end of this known contaminated bottles. One more tainted bottle was found a bottle of a Nassin three in the same store that she had bought one of her bottles of etceterron, so a different brand, but same store that she had bought this extceterron from. So although investigators were suspicious of Stella, they needed more evidence. They were also suspicious of Sue Snow's husband, Paul Webking, as he claimed to have taken two pills from the same bottle as Sue when he left for work, but he was fine. Both Stella and Paul Webking brought wrongful death lawsuits against Bristol Myers. Now When examining the cyanide powder in the poison bottles, they found these flecks of some unknown green substance, and it turns out that it was an algaeicide called algae Destroyer,

27:16 which is used in home aquariums to you know, help with algae problems. Now, knowing that the deaths were now characterized as murder. Investigators turned their attention to their two prime suspects, Paul Webking and Stella Nickel. Both were asked to take polygraph tests, which Paul agreed to, but Stella was a bit more cagey. She had started drinking heavily after Bruce's death, and she said she was too shaken up to take the test. Well, drinking also will make it, so it's not an accurate test. I mean as accurate as it already is, right, but I mean it will impact those physiological things. So I'm not sure if it would have changed anything. But it is suspicious when people say nope, I don't want to do it.

28:01 Well, no, I don't actually think it. It is well maybe back then, but today not agree to a polygraph test ever. Well, I have actually taken one for a case. I was not the accused. I was the victim, and when I gave my testimony, it said that I was not truthful and I was telling the truth should never and I was not the one accused. So it's like I didn't have much to Yeah, and there were certain sections I think really what it was I'd put myself in a position to be a victim and so I felt guilty about that, and so it was coming across on the machine that I was not being truthful about the case.

28:43 That makes sense. It's not reading, it's not picking up the right story. Yeah, it's there is a physiological change, but it's not what you think. No, don't. Yeah, I've watched enough true crime to not do not if you, yeah, don't ever take a polygraph test. It's junk science. It's not admissible in court, but it can certainly taint the investigation. And if people are like, if you're not, if you're innocent, why wouldn't you take a polygraph test, It's like, because they fail all the time. It's junk science. I'm not going to do it anyway. That's either here nor there. So with more digging, detectives turned up incriminating evidence against Stella. Prior to the death of her husband, Bruce, she had taken out a seventy six thousand dollars life insurance policy on her husband, and here's the kicker, it paid out an additional one hundred thousand dollars if the death was accidental. So even before Sue Snow died and gave investigators some idea that the deaths were linked. Stella insisted that Bruce's death was suspicious, he had no history of inmphysima. And then detectives found two insurance policies with Bruce's forged signature. And what about the flex of algaecide in the cyanide? Well, Stella had an aquarium. Now, she insisted up and down that she had never purchased an algaecide, But investigators talked to the owner of the local pet store who said that Stella had ordered such a large amount of algae destroyer that

30:15 he had to make a special order for it. Yes, so it was speculated that Stella used the same container to crush the algaecide as she did to crush the cyanide, hence the contamination. Now, Stella finally consented to a polygraph in nineteen eighty six, but failed. However, as we all know, polygraphs are junk science, so that means the thing they couldn't prove that she had purchased the cyanide or tained to the capsules, even though there were those suspicious insurance policies. But finally, in nineteen eighty seven, something crazy happened that broke the case. Don't doudge Me, which we will get into right after this quick break back to nineteen eighty seven, Stella's grown daughter, Cynthia, went to the police with information about her mother. Now little history. Stella and Bruce both had checkered backgrounds. Stella had her first child, Cynthia, at the age of sixteen. Not long after, she became pregnant with a second child by a different man, and knowing that it would be tough to attract a husband with two kids from two different fathers, she gave up the new baby for adoption.

31:39 She was for that reason, so that she could attract a man in the future. Oh my golly. Now, according to her children and other people who knew her, she was a neglectful and sometimes cruel mother to Cynthia. When Cynthia was nine, Stella beat her legs with a curtain rod, and when Cynthia reported her to the police, she claimed that the child was lying. At one point, she just abandoned her child to one of her husbands. She's a lovely lady. Yeah, she's great. So she spent a lot of time not actually having Cynthia in her life. Stella also, yeah, they weren't close.

32:19 It wasn't until Cynthia was a teenager that she actually went back to live with her mother. She had a long history of fraud, forgery, and drinking. So she met Bruce in nineteen seventy four and they bonded over going to bars. When Bruce decided to get sober some ten years later, Stella found herself bored with the marriage. They used to have so much fun together going to bars. Yeah, now they had nothing in common, and her own drinking became much worse. She picked up what he dropped off. Exactly according to Cynthia, Stella told her that if Bruce was out of the picture, she and Cynthia would have enough money to open a tropical fish store or maybe a ceramics store.

33:02 I mean, why don't she have all these algae or aquarium supplies yet? She Oh, my god, but want store opened a tropical fish store, right, But no, I don't. I would never order that. That's great. So she checked out several books from the Auburn Library that included information about poisonous plants. She even confided to Cynthia that she had tried to poison Bruce in the past with fox glove hidden in capsules, but all that happened is he got suddenly very sleepy. Records from the Auburn Public Library showed that Stella had checked out several books about poisons, including human poisonings from Native and cultivated plants and Deadly Harvest. That should be a book that exists.

33:48 I know, That's what I like. Anybody who checks that out, you should be suspicious. How to kill people with what's in your yard? Right? That sound like a terrible book. Well, the other thing is she'd never returned the book to the library. Oh my gosh. And Stella's fingerprints were found on several books she had checked out, and she had also left fingerprints and palm prints on entries about cyanide poisoning in three encyclopedias at the library. This woman was meant to commit crime. Clearly she was meant to get caught. Yeah. Stella was indicted in federal court and found guilty of product tampering, not murder.

34:30 WHOA and was sentenced to ninety years in prison just from product tampering. I think it was product tampering that caused death, was the sentencing. Yeah, okay, and we'll get we'll get to that. So not murder, but kinda. Yeah, her own daughter, Cynthia, was a star witness against her own mother, and she received two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the Drug Industry Award. Oh wow. Now, this of course led to some speculation that perhaps it was a conspiracy between Cynthia and Stella to get that money, but that was never verified. I mean, why would you have a conspiracy where you go to prison? Right now? Stella maintained her innocence, insisting that her daughter lied on the stand in exchange for the reward money. Now, I mean I think Stella, I mean, Stella is obviously guilty, yeah, but do I also think that maybe this woman who was raised by somebody who has a is not an honest person, could have maybe come forward to capitalize.

35:33 On that sure genetics and environment, yeah, provided by her mother, right either. So I don't know, but yeah, it is Stella did this, I mean allegedly. No, she was convicted of it. She didn't, right, No, no longer a legend. So over the. Years, she's filed multiple appeals and even petitioned for compassionate release, but all have been denied, so she remains incarcerated at FCI Hazelton in West Virginia with a projected release date of March seventh, twenty forty three. Wow, twenty forty three, so that's yeah, seventy years then ish before she can even seek release. That's crazy. Well good, twenty forty three now less than less than twenty years.

36:19 No from nineteen eighty seven. Oh yeah, Both the Thailand al murders and the Exceeddron poisonings had a profound impact on product safety regulations and how tampering cases are handled in the United States. Before nineteen eighty two, over the counter medications like Thailand or Exceedron were packaged, like I said, in simple plastic bottles, often with nothing more than a thin cardboard box and a water cotton stuffed inside the neck of the bottle to protect earpills. There were no. Seals, no shrink wrap, no real way to know if a product had been opened or altered. You know, it's interesting, we've become so used to this, Like all our products, toothpaste, whatever it is, anything that we're going to put in our body or on our body, have some sort of seal, right that when it doesn't, you are immediately suspicious. And I ordered a bunch of stuff from Korea and they just have different product packaging regulations. And when I got the products and they didn't have that little foil seal over the the like skincare product thing, I was like And then I got online and read and they're like, yeah, they just don't do that with this brand. And I'm like, Okay, I guess I'm gonna take the chance of rubbing. But Arsenic come so far, so good.

37:31 I'm fine. I mean, look at this, Look at this skin. Yeah, you can definitely tell you've been using Korean skincare. All of this changed after the Thailand All Murders. Working with the FDA, Johnson and Johnson pioneered tamper evident packaging, introducing foil seals, shrink bands, and other security features that made it immediately obvious if a product had been opened. The company also redesigned its capsules to make them more resistant to tampering. These innovations quickly became the industry's standard, and in nineteen eighty three, Congress passed the Federal Anti Tampering Act, better known as the Tailanyl Bill, making it a federal crime to tamper with consumer products. This new law gave federal authorities the power to investigate and prosecute such crimes, carrying penalties of up to life in prison if deaths occurred. So when Stella Nicol placed cyanide laced eccedrin capsules on store shelves in nineteen eighty six, prosecutors used this very law to bring her to justice. The Tailanyl build allowed federal jurisdiction over her case and made the product tampering resulting in death a serious federal offense.

38:42 It was one of the first major tests of the law and set the standard for how similar cases would be handled in the future. And thanks to these tragedies and the lessons learned from them, today's consumers can buy medications with far greater confidence in their safety. Foil seals, shrink wraps, and safety caps might seem like a small annoyances, but they exist because people once really did have reason to fear what was in the bottle. Yeah, I remember, because I was, like, you know, eighty six, I was fourteen ish. That is terrifying to think that you could go pick up this bottle at the store in a box, take it home and somebody's tampered with it. So it was scary.

39:22 And while today tail and all and asked me to Oh, no, I did it. I see Amitavan It's because you got you got autism from taking it. I did well today, Thailand all, And. I can't say it all. I'm just ceda menaphon. I'll do it for you. You say, Thailand, I'll say. And while today, tail and All and a Ceda medafin are being demonized in some corners of the Internet and the press, despite the flimsiest of despite the flimsiest of evidence, because like, who needs facts anymore? Right, sciences for krommies.

40:05 I just feel like it. You know. That's vibes, Yeah, that's vibes. There was a brief moment in the nineteen eighties when that fear was actually kind of justified a little bit. For a few terrifying years, reaching for a bottle of painkillers really could end all your pain forever. Bom bom boom. Definitely Okay, And so if you guys haven't guessed yet, this was my shameless attempt to take advantage of the headlines. You're welcome, nice work. Well, I mean it is a hot topic right now, so well, and it does have link to where we live, I mean, right, now we are literally sitting probably fifteen minutes away from where this happened.

40:49 Yeah, and the Auburn ones not Chicago obviously. So this is one of those things. If you're a true crime nut and you live in the Pacific Northwest, you know this story like you saw you you like knew immediately. I knew immediately. I forgot it was Aburn though, Yeah, right here, because at the time I lived farther away from Auburn. You guys probably have been to the same bars that Stella Nickel has been to. Yeah, we'll have to talk about yeah. Yeah, we need to figure that out. Yeah. So I want to thank all of our Dedicade listeners. We appreciate you so much, and thank you to our amazing patrons, You guys rock. And a big thank you to our new amazing marketing team, the incredible Letha Davis, who is responsible for a beautiful new website, and the talented Coral and Logan Hine who have been making some killer videos for our YouTube and social media. And if you want a website as gorgeous as ours or some great social media content, head on over to LEITHA. Davis dot com. That's l. E. T. H. A D A v I s and reach out to Letha. This website design is mind bogglingly good, especially for podcasters.

41:54 Yeah, it's crazy. She is so talented. I don't even to understand how she made this happen. It's full of all these automations and like AI tools that you just like copy and paste a couple of things, and then all of a sudden you have this beautiful, this beautiful post for your episode up there. I just I don't know what happened the player embedded in it. It's great, It's it's incredible. It's so good. And if you want your own piece of custom bespoke fan fiction based on one of our stories, all you have to do is either sign up for the contest, which you go to at our website, or sign up for a Patreon You get bonus content, ad free episodes and more.

42:34 Head on over to Rainy Day rabbit Holes dot com, forward slash support for more information, and as always, if you would like to help us out but you don't have the wherewithal to support us on Patreon, go leave a radio review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Really makes us feel great to hear kind words from you. If you comment on our YouTube. Maybe say something nice. It's funny here. Guess what. I delete the the crappy comments because I don't like seeing them. It makes me feel bad. She feels like there's people pointing at her, yelling shame, shame. Look, I will shame myself enough. I don't need you to do it too. If you don't have something remember, if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all. Keep it till your sale, all right, guys, Well, thank you so much. We'll see you next time and see it a ravel perfect